Features

The Award for the Swankiest Photo Booth goes to Mark Seliger

by . February 25th, 2015

Move away ordinary photo booths! Mark Seliger’s gives us a lesson on how to make the fanciest and neatest looking photo booth that he and Vanity Fair used for the recently concluded Academy Awards.

The celebrated American photographer has been setting up elaborate photo booths (more like quick pop up photo studios) during the past few Vanity Fair Oscars parties. Last year everyone was talking about his beautifully lit photograph of Lupita Nyong’o whose gladly clutching her Oscar’s trophy. This year, Mark Seliger has done it again. By making use of a small room and with a bit of carpentry and production magic has manage to transform a bare room into an old gorgeous hotel that looks like it came straight out of Boardwalk Empire with a staircase on the side.

Lupita Nyong’o and her Oscar from last year:

Below is a time lapse video of how the set was put up together and a behind the scenes look of how the lighting was done:

Our set going up for this year’s #vfoscarparty

A video posted by Mark Seliger (@markseliger) on

#ladygaga #bts #vfoscarparty #oscars2015

A photo posted by Mark Seliger (@markseliger) on

What’s more to love with Mark Seliger’s portraits are they are lit using a simple system. The photographs are very reminiscent of Renaissance paintings by the way they are lit. You can see more of the images below or you can check out Vanity Fair’s post about the Oscar’s party or Mark Seliger’s Instagram feed.

Below are some of our favorite images that we think are amazingly well done:

The lovely @ritaora #vfoscarparty

A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on

The one and only Emma Stone poses for @markseliger #vfoscarparty

A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on

Eddie, meet Oscar. Oscar, Eddie. The best actor winner poses for @markseliger #vfoscarparty

A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on

Little ditty ’bout Josh and Diane. Jackson and Kruger, that is. #vfoscarparty

A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on

Oscar host @instagranph poses in his underwear (AND a tuxedo, relax!) for @markseliger. #vfoscarparty

A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on

The one and only #FranLebowitz. Portrait by @markseliger #vfoscarparty

A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on


The next time you are planning to put up a photo booth on a party and you are fed up *with* the regular photo booth ideas it might be a good idea to take a leaf from Mark Seliger’s book.

What do you folks think? Share your thoughts at the comments below!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: